Winter chill for July car sales

But Australia remains on track for record sales in 2016.

Winter chill for July car sales

Australian car sales cooled in July following the federal election and outstanding end of financial year sales in June.

While sales for the month were down 1.1 per cent on July 2015, the year to date remains 2.8 per cent ahead of 2015 and still on track for a new record.

Having topped the charts with 6432 sales in June, Hyundai's i30 dropped to 2216 reported registrations last month as customer demand slowed down. The booming brand's fortunes were affected by a decision to drop a significant sales proportion for the i30 which had been available with an automatic transmission for $19,990 drive-away, before reverting to $20,990 drive-away in manual form.

The average performance for Hyundai's sales leader helped Toyota's HiLux build its lead as the most popular car for the year to date while the popular Mazda3 failed to make the top 10 list for the first time in years as it successfully cleared stock ahead of the updated model's arrival late in the month. On the plus side, its baby CX-3 became the first of a new breed in city-sized SUVs to make the top 10 list, just behind its larger CX-5 sibling and Toyota's RAV4.

The Toyota HiLux is on track to be the most popular new vehicle of 2016. Photo: Mark Bean

The Japanese giant remains on top of the local sales race, ranking ahead of Mazda, Hyundai, Holden and Ford in July.

Mercedes remains on top of the luxury car brands, having sold almost 15,000 cars for the year to date. The C-Class and C-Class-based GLC remain the top sellers in their classes, though BMW's X5 helped the rival marque consolidate its position as the most popular source of luxury SUVs.

While Ford continues to experience the strongest growth of the three Australian manufacturers, only the Mustang leads its segment in the sales race.

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